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SHRINES & STORIES

Outlook Traveller

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August - September 2025

LONG BEFORE TODAY'S TOURISTS, BENGALI PILGRIMS AND ROYALTY MADE THEIR WAY TO KASHI AND LEFT BEHIND A REMARKABLE TEMPLE LEGACY

- Words → SANTOSH OJHA

SHRINES & STORIES

VARANASI IS A MYSTERIOUS city. It celebrates both death and life, the sacred and the profane. If you listen carefully, the city will whisper tales of its past: of kings and conquerors, scholars and sinners, builders and demolishers. This is the story of some of those builders: devotees from distant Bengal who sailed up the Ganges over two centuries ago, each determined to add their bit to Kashi's sacred geography.

Late one muggy August afternoon, I was returning to my hotel after meeting a friend at Banaras Hindu University. Perched on a cycle rickshaw crawling through the impossibly crowded Bhelupur-Durgakund Road, I spotted a towering ochre-painted temple shikhara. I hopped off to explore.

I entered through an intricately carved doorway into a square courtyard where a Durga Temple, built in the North Indian Nagara style, sat on a high platform at the centre. Its towering shikhara rose above the sanctum, surrounded by smaller spires. An ochre-painted sabha mandapa with gold-trimmed columns stood nearby, topped by a pyramidal roof. Beside it lay Durga Kund, a sacred pond with steps for ritual dips.

I sat on the verandah across from the mandapa, trying to absorb what I'd just seen. A quick Google search revealed something unexpected: the story of Rani Bhabani, who built this temple in 1760. It turned out that many Bengali pilgrims, some of them wealthy and influential, journeyed to Varanasi over the centuries and left their mark on this holy city's landscape.

BENGAL'S QUEEN

FLERE HISTORIER FRA Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

SUMMER'S SURRENDER

THREE DAYS IN ZÜRICH THROUGH ITS OLD TOWN, THE LIMMAT'S RHYTHM AND THE SPIRIT OF SUMMER

time to read

5 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE GHOSTLY GALLEON

IN SCOTLAND'S ISLE OF SKYE, the weather is never still.

time to read

1 min

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE SOLE MEMORY

I WAS LOOKING FOR A SHOE shop to get my favourite pair repaired. The August Texan heat had loosened the sole on one of them. In other times, I would have thrown the pair away rather than go through the trouble of finding a repair shop. But I loved these shoes and searched for someone to bring them back to life.

time to read

2 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE LAST MILE

EVERY EVENING AT 4.30 PM, IN Hussainiwala, Punjab, a crowd gathers near the National Martyrs Memorial.

time to read

3 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE MARQUESS AND THE MAESTRO

FROM GILDED ROCOCO PALACES TO WAGNER'S AWE-INSPIRING FESTSPIELHAUS, BAYREUTH TELLS A STORY OF TWO LEGACIES-ONE ROYAL, ONE MUSICAL

time to read

5 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

A FLEETING COMMUNION

THE RITUAL IMMERSION OF DURGA IDOLS IN THE ICHAMATI RIVER TEMPORARILY TRANSGRESSES THE MANMADE DEMARCATIONS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST BENGAL

time to read

5 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

'DEEPOTSAV' 2025: AYODHYA'S FESTIVAL OF LIGHT RETURNS IN GRAND STYLE

Rooted in the Ramayana and reborn in recent years as a global spectacle, 'Deepotsav' has transformed Ayodhya into a city of light and faith. This year's edition, on October 19, promises to be the biggest yet

time to read

3 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE GREAT INDIAN DESTINATION WEDDING

SHAPED BY TRAVEL, TASTE, AND A RESTLESS GENERATION, DESTINATION WEDDINGS ARE REWRITING HOW INDIA CELEBRATES MARRIAGE IN 2025

time to read

8 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

WHERE MEMORY LIVES ON

ON A CLOUDY JULY AFTERNOON IN DAWAR, THE main hub of Gurez Valley and once the ancient capital of the Dards, I stood in its Tulaili bazaar waiting for a shared taxi.

time to read

4 mins

October - November 2025

Outlook Traveller

Outlook Traveller

THE BORDERLESS GURU

THE AIR IS THIN, TINGED with the scent of juniper. A swift wind whips through faded prayer flags, while glaciers carve valleys and jagged peaks pierce a sky the colour of lapis lazuli. Standing here, the idea of political borders feels almost absurd. Maps may mark out India, Nepal, Bhutan, or Tibet, but the landscape itself refuses to be partitioned. These mountains carry a shared heritage, embodied by a single figure who transcends frontiers: Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born. Known as Guru Rinpoche, the Precious Master, Padmasambhava brought Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century. His image gazes out from gompas across the Himalayas-wrathful yet compassionate, eyes filled with the wisdom of lifetimes. To see him only as a missionary is to miss the larger truth.

time to read

3 mins

October - November 2025

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